Shoulder shaper assembly



May 27, 1969 M. J. sPl-:No

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UnitedStates Patent O 3,445,944 SHOULDER SHAPER ASSEMBLY Martin J. Speno, Syracuse, N.Y., assignor to Frank Speno Railroad Ballast Cleaning Co., Inc., Ithaca, N.Y., a corporation of New York Filed Jan. 10, 1967, Ser. No. 608,423 Int. Cl. E02f 5 /22, `3/00; E01c 19/48 U.S. Cl. 37-105 8 Claims ABSTRACTW OF THE DISCLOSURE A rail shoulder shaper carried by a car for movement along the railway track for operation on the shoulder of the roadbed. Vertically adjustable support means are carried by the car to support a wing member extending laterally and in turn carrying a blade for operation on the shoulder. The wing member is swingable about a horizontal axis under the actuation of suitable power means. Such axis is defined by a torsion resisting bar which also provides a vertical connection between the wing member and the support means.

patent to Bruno et al. 2,830,391, entitled Leveler, issued Apr. 15, 1958, and assigned to the assignee of the present invention.

While these prior art devices have proven to be generally successful for their intended purpose of leveling the clean ballast into a new shoulder, they are by nature limited to a use of working the shoulder only over a limited portion thereof where the scoop of the ballast cleaning apparatus is usually deployed. In other words, these prior art levelers are capable of little or no lateral extension or adjustment along the shoulder so that the ballast closest to the ends of the ties and at the far extreme of the shoulder cannot be worked.

The ballast scoop on the most modern ballast cleaning apparatus is now designed for lateral movement toward and away from the ends of the crossties so as to be capable of removing different cross-sectional areas of ballast as desired. These scoops of necessity require the use of a leveler which is capable of extension across the whole shoulder so that the clean ballast may be worked regardless of the position at which it has been deposited. It has been proposed in the past to provide a plow device that extends across the full expanse of the shoulder to meet this need; however, these structures have proven to be particularly large and cumbersome and as a result have proven to be generally incapable of ellicient movement between a raised travel position and the work position. Further, these prior structures have occupied large spaces on the railway cars and have the additional disadvantage of being expensive to fabricate.

Accordingly, it is a broad object of'the present invention ot providea shoulder shaper assembly which overcomes the shortcomings of the prior art mentioned above and thus is capable of versatile and ellicient use to work a shoulder of a railway.

' Another broad object of the present invention is to provide an improved shoulder shaper for operatingv on the ballast along selected portions of the shoulder, and

which is capable of remotely controlled and highly efficient shifting movement along the shoulder and between the working and travel positions.

Another broad object of the present invention is to provide a shoulder Shaper which is characterized by simplicity and compactness of design and lightness of weight, and is inexpensive to fabricate.

In accordance with the present invention, there is provided a shoulder Shaper assembly for the purpose described including a main support member to which is attached a wing member having a pair of elongated parallel guideways. A power means is provided for effecting angular adjustment of the Wing member between the vertical travel position adjacent the support member and a work position extending laterally from the side of the car just above the shoulder of the railway. The guideways support slides which through power means are adjustable along the shoulder and which carry the shaperblade for operation on the selected portion of the shoulder in accordance with the adjusted position of the slides. Also, the main support member is adjustable vertically between an upper travel position and a lower travel position; the

shoulder shaper assuming a generally dat folded position at a favorable center of gravity position adjacent the side sill of the car. In accordance with the invention, the carrier assembly is supported and locked in this upper travel' position by a rigid rack on the car, thus relieving the hydraulic cylinders of a supporting function during this inactive mode.

In accordance with an important feature of the present invention, the guideways are interconnected at the pivot axis of the wing member by a torsion resisting bar, which effectively prevents twisting of the wing under the action of the Shaper blade whereby the blade is carried on a substantially rigid carrier assembly to effectively spread the ballast along the shoulder without the need for heavy and bulky components. Furthermore, because of this torsion resisting action of the wing member, the' shoulder Shaper assembly is also capable of allowing added extended movement of the blade along the shoulder of the roadbed. This feature is especially desirable in that the tips of the blade may now be brought into engagement with the ends of the ties or into engagement with the outermost portions of the shoulder to scrape away deposits of mud or other -accumulations of non-ballast material that might otherwise prevent proper drainage of. the track. e

" In accordance with other aspects of the present invention, the Shaper blade is hingedly mounted on its supporting slides so that it is capable of assuming a folded position when"the' assembly is positioned in the travel position. Further, the blade is easily replaceable to suit the particular needs ofthe 'operation being performed as determined by the cross-sectional shape of theshoulder; however, in practice, an elongated-blade positioned at approximately 30 with respect to the apparatus has been found suitable for most shaping applications. Also, to perform the final dressing operation onthe shoulder there is provided a relatively heavy chain connected to the outer end of the wing so as' to form a drag loop to the rear of the Iblade during operation. l t Accordingly, it' is a more specific object of the present invention to provide a shoulder shaper with a wing-memb'er having spaced parallel guidewaysv for adjustable support of the shaper blade at any operative position along the shoulder. l f it is a related speci-tic object of the present invention to provide a blade Acarrier assembly supported by a torsion resisting bar arrangement which resists twisting of said assembly as the blade works along the shoulder. It is still another object of the present invention yto .provide a shoulder shaper unit which is retractable to a travel position wherein it forms a compact folded structure along the side of the car in a favorable center of gravity position.

It is still another object of the Ipresent invention t provide a shoulder shaper having a supporting wing shiftable between a travel position, wherein the assembly is supported on a rigid rack so 'as to relieve the operating hydraulic cylinders from a support function, to a working position along the shoulder of the railway.

Still other objects and advantages of the present invention will become readily apparent to those skilled in this art from the following detailed description, wherein I have shown and described only the preferred embodiment of the invention, simply by way of illustration of the best mode contemplated by me of carrying out my invention. As will be realized, the invention is capable of other and different embodiments, and its several details are capable of modification in various obvious respects, all without departing from the invention. Accordingly, the drawings and description are to be regarded as illustrative in nature, and not as restrictive.

In the drawings:

FIGURE l is an overall side view of an operative embodiment of the shoulder shaper assembly of the present invention illustrating its mounted position on a railway car;

FIGURE la is a detailed cross-sectional view taken along line la-la of FIGURE l;

FIGURE 2 is a front view of the railway car illustrating left and right-hand units of the shoulder shaper assembly on the car, the left-hand unit being in the travel position and the right-hand unit being in the work position;

FIGURE 3 is a side view of the assembly of the invention positioned in the upper travel position as viewed in the direction of line 3-3 of FIGURE 2;

FIGURE 4 is a top plan view of the shaper blade and its carrier assembly as viewed in the direction of line 4-4 of FIGURE 2;

FIGURE 4a' is a detailed view looking in the direction of line 4ta- 4a of FIGURE 4;

FIGURE 4b is a cross-sectional 4b4b of the same view; and

FIGURE 5 is a detailed cross-sectional view taken along the line 5-5 of FIGURE 4.

With reference now to FIGURE 1 of the drawings, there is illustrated for the purpose of disclosing the present invention, a shoulder shaper mounted on the side of railway car 11, of which only the side sill 12 and related structure and a portion of one truck 13 has been illustrated. As can be realized 4from viewing this tigure, the truck 13 of the car 11 rides along rails R supported in a conventional manner by cross-ties T on a roadbed having an exposed and sloping shoulder S to be operated on.

The shoulder shaper 10 of the preferred embodiment includes an elongated blade 15 supported by a wing and carrier assembly 16, which are adapted for movement along the shoulder S, as indicated by the arrow 17, upon forward movement of the c`ar 11 during the work operation. The wing and carrier assembly 16, which will be described in detail later, is supported by a main support plate carried by a slide block 21 (note FIGURE la) which, in turn, is slidable in a vertical direction in a C-4 shaped 'guideway 22. The guideway 22 is fixed in any suitable m'anner on the car 11; the vertical channel member 23 extending upwardly from the side sill 12, being shown for this purpose.

A lconventional double-acting hydraulic cylinder 25 is attached at its upper end to the channel member 23, and has a reciprocable piston rod 26 carrying a yoke 27 that is attached to the upper edge of the main support plate 20 for the purpose of moving said support plate 20 between an upper travel* position and a lower travel position, which positions will be explained mjo're in detail later. It will be understood that a suitable hydraulic control cirview taken along line 4 cuit is, in reality, associated with the hydraulic cylinder 25 (as well as with the additional cylinders, describedbelow) for the purpose of controlling the reciprocable movement; however, since such basic circuitry is well known and is not critical to the understanding of this invention, it is not illustrated herein.

Referring now to FIGURE 2 where left and right-hand units L, R of the shaper 10 are shown, it can be seen that the assembly 16 is pivoted to the lower end of the main support plate 20 about a pivot axis, generally designated by the reference numeral 28. To swing the assembly 16 and the attached blade 15 between the work position, as shown by the unit R in this figure and as shown in FIGURE l, there is provided a double-acting hydraulic cylinder 29 carried at its upper end by a laterally extending ear 30 on the main support plate 20 (note FIGURE la) and having reciprocable piston rod 31 attached to the assembly 16 by a suitable angle plate 32 (note FIGURES 2 and 3). Thus, upon proper actuation of the hydraulic cylinder 29, the assembly 16 and the blade 15 are pivoted in a counterclockwise direction about the pivot axis 28, as noted by arrow 33 in FIGURE 2, so as to assume a position adjacent the main support plate 20, or what has been referred to as the lower travel position.

Preferably, during actual operation, when it is desired to raise or lower the shoulder shaper 10 to or from the upper travel position, the cylinder 25 for operating the main support plate 20 is actuated in conjunction with the cylinder 29 for angularly adjusting or pivoting the assembly 16 so that the shaper 10 of the present invention can be rapidly and directly placed in or removed from said upper travel position, illustrated by the left-hand unit L in FIGURES 2 and 3..

In this upper travel position, the assembly 16 is adapted to engage a laterally extending rack 35 which presents a horizontal supporting surface 36 as well as a vertical shoulder 37. As will be clear, once the assembly 16 has been latched into the upper travel position in engagement with the rack 35, the horizontal sunface 36 relieves the vertical cylinder 25 from its supporting function and the vertical shoulder 37 relieves the cylinder 29 of its supporting function. This is important in that the assembly 16 with the blade 15 is securely held in the travel position without any reliance on the hydraulic system, so that in this inactive mode the hydraulic system does not need to be retained in a pressurized condition. In addition, of course, this also provides a safety factor in that the shaper 10 cannot be inadvertently released into the lowered position when it is positioned in said rack 35.

The specific construction and design of the wing and carrier assembly 16 is of considerable importance in that it allows the blade -15 to be rigidly supported lfor working movement along the shoulder S while at the same time being capable of eicient adjusting movement across said shoulder S to work the different areas, as required. Specifically, as can best be seen in FIG- URES 4, 4a and 4b, the assembly 16 comprises a wing member 40 consisting of a pair of spaced parallel guideways 41, 42 which are substantially rigidly interconnected at their outer ends by a tie plate 43 and bolts 43a. More importantly, at the inner ends of the guideways 41, 42 there is provided a torsion resisting shaft 44 which is provided with a key portion 45 on each end thereof; the key portions 45 being mated with sockets 46, 47 which are, in turn, suitably welded or otherwise ixed to the guideways 41, 42, respectively. This arrangement resists twisting of said wing member 40 under the working action of the blade 15 and thus causes said blade 1S to form the shoulder S of substantially constant cross section in any adjusted setting of the assembly 16.

The shaft 44 serves to form the pivot axis 28 along with itsmounting sleeve 50, which is, in turn, carried by a pair of support brackets 51, 52 suitably attached to the main support plate 20. A spacer sleeve 53 is disposed between the socket 46 and the mounting sleeve 50 so that the wing member 40 is lpositioned slightly forward of the centerline of the main support plate 20, which allows the favorable placement of the cylinder 29 along the centerline of the wing member 40 (note FIGURE 3) to insure a substantially constant force being placed along the full length of the blade from front to back.

Mounted for sliding movement along the guideways 41, 42 of the wing member 40 are carrier slides 55, 56, respectively, which are interconnected by a cross channel 57 so that said slides 55, 56 are movable along the guideways 41, 42 as a lsingle carrier unit. The blade 15 is attached to the cross channel 57 by a pair of hinges, generally designated by the yreferenlce numerals 58, 59, at the opposite ends of the cross channel 57. As can be seen in EIGUiRE 5, the hinges 58, 59 are operative only in the direction to allow a swinging of the blade 15 toward the folded position adjacent the wing 40, as indicated by the arrow 6|]l in this gure. lln the other direction, a stop 61 is provided for the purpose of retaining the blade 15 in the operative plowing position against the force of the ballast as said blade 15 moves along the shoulder S. The blade 15 is easily removed from the cross channel 57 by removal of pivot plan 59a whereupon any other suitable shape of blade 15 may be incorporated to perform special shaping operations on the shoulder S.

The slides 55, 56 are permanently spaced from each other in the longitudinal direction along their respective guideways 41, 42 by attachment of the cross lchannel 57 so as to allow the blade 15 to assume a working angle of approximately 30 with respect to the railway track, as indicated in FIGURE 4. Thus, as the blade 15 is moved forwardly in the direction of the arrow 17 in this iigure (also note FIGURE 1), a portion, designated by the reference numeral X (note FIGURES 4 and 2), of the shoulder S is worked to thus smooth out the ballast with the excess clean ballast being moved by the working angle to the rear of the blade 15 and closer to the ends of the ties T on the `-shoulder S, as desired.

To eiect adjustable movement of the slides 55, 56 along the guideways 41, 42 in accordance with the present invention, a hydraulic cylinder 65 is mounted between the socket 46 and the slide 55 and this means that the portion X of the shoulder S being operated on by the blade 15 can be moved toward and away from the ends of the ties T, as required. For example, as loan be seen by viewing the right-hand unit R of FIGURE 2, the cylinder 65 when retracted to its full extent is operative to position the blade 15 with its trailing tipy in juxtaposition to the ends of the ties T, as denoted by the dashed line outline noted by reference numeral 66. The position 66 is, of course, used when the ballast i-s being removed and cleaned immediately adjacent the ends of the ties T. Also, it should be noted that with the blade 15 extending up to the ends of the ties T, any mud which has escaped the scoop and scraper stations, which have previously passed along this point, is advantageously smoothed and distributed over the ballast to prevent the formation of deleterious water barriers.

On the other hand, the blade 15 is capable of full extension to the outer limits of the shoulder S, as indicated by the dash-dot outline 67, whereby the ballast in these outermost regions can now be worked. With the blade 15 in this outermost position, any mud which has accumulated in this area will also be scraped away so that the full drainage of the track can be realized.

To perform a iinal dressing operation on the shoulder S, there is provided in accordance with the present invention a relatively heavy chain 70 which forms a loop to the rear of the blade 15 in the manner illustrated in FIGURE l. `One end of the chain 70 is preferably attached to the tie plate 43 on the wing member 40' with the other end of the chain 70 being attached at a suitable location on the iframe of the car 11, as illustrated. It will be noted that the assembly 16 can be raised to the travel position by the hydraulic cylinders 25, 29 while the chain 70 is still attached thereto, and then by merely placing the looped end constituting the remainder of the chain 70 on the car 11, the entire shoulder shaper 10 is ready for traveling.

From the foregoing, it should now be evident to those skilled in the art that a novel shoulder shaper 10 with delinite results and advantages not present in prior art devices has been provided by the present invention. For example, 'the provision of the torsion resisting bar 44, which also forms the pivot axis 28 of the blade supporting wing 40, eiciently maintains the blade 15 in a working condition without undesirable twisting of said wing member 40 that could otherwise leave the shoulder S with an uneven cross-sectional shape. Furthermore, it is clear that the blade 15 is capable of working on any portion X of the shoulder S and that the wing and carrier assembly 16 can be rapidly shifted between the raised travel position and the lowered work position in operative engagement with the shoulder S. In the upper travel position, the provision of-a rigid rack 35 insures that the blade 15 and its assembly 16 will be retained in this position until the working site is reached. Finally, the provision of the compact and lightweight construction described that can be folded at along the side of the car 11 means that the center of gravity of the ballast cleaning apparatus upon which the shaper 10 is mounted is not adversely aiected and that the profile or overhang of said shaper 10 can easily be brought well within the travel limitations of the railroads, while at the same time, being conveniently disposed for rapid deployment for operation.

In this disclosure, there is shown and described onlyI the preferred embodiment of the invention, but, as aforementioned, it is to be understood that the invention is capable' of various changes or modifications within the scope of the inventive concept as expressed by the accompanying claims. A

-I claim:

1. A railway shoulder shaper for use with a continuous railway work apparatus for operation on the shoulder of the roadbed comprising support means carried by said apparatus, for sliding movement along a vertical axis, power means for electing vertical shifting movement of said support means, along said axis, a wing member pivotally connected to said support means about a horizontal axis, said wing member including a pair of elongated parallel guideways, power means for effecting angular adjustment of said wing member between a substantially vertical travel position and a Work position extending laterally from said apparatus above said shoulder, a slide mounted on each of said guideways, power means for etecting adjustable movement of said slides along said Wing member, a blade carried by said slides for operation on a portion of said shoulder in accordance with the adjusted position of said slides during operation in said Work position, and bar means for rigidly interconnecting said guideways to resist twisting of said wing member under action of said blade.

2. The combination of claim 1 wherein said bar means includes a torsion resisting bar lixedly connected to the inner ends of said guideways and forming the pivot axis of said wing member.

3. A railway shoulder shaper for use with a continuous railway work apparatus for operation on the shoulder of the roadbed comprising support means carried by said apparatus, a wing member pivotally connected to said support means about a horizontal axis, said wing member including a pair of elongated parallel guideways, power means for effecting angular adjustment of said wing member between a substantially vertical travel position and a work position extending laterally from said apparatus above said shoulder, a slide mounted on each of said guideways, power means for effecting adjustable movement of said slides along said wing member, a blade carried by said slides for operation on a portion of said shoulder in accordance with the adjusted position of said slides during operation in said work position, and bar means for rigidly interconnecting said guideways to resist twisting of said wing member under action of said blade, said bar means including a torsion resisting bar fixedly connected to the inner ends of said guideways and forming the pivot axis of said wing member, and a tie plate interconnecting the outer ends of said guide- Ways opposite said torsion resisting bar and a fixed rack on said support means engageable with said tie plate to support said wing member when the same is positioned in said travel position.

4. The combination of claim 3 wherein said support means includes a vertical support guideway and a corresponding support slide carrying said torsion resisting bar, and wherein is further provided power means for effecting vertical shifting movement of said support slide to move said wing member between an upper travel position and a lower travel position, said rack being positioned to be engaged by said tie plate only in said upper travel position.

5. The combination of claim 3 wherein said torsion resisting bar is carried by a horizontally extending sleeve supported by said support means, the opposite ends of said bar being connected to the inner end of said wing whereby said wing is substantially incapable of twisting action along its longitudinal axis.

6. A railway shoulder Shaper for use with a continuous railway work apparatus for operation on the shoulder of the roadbed comprising support means carried by said apparatus, a wing member pivotally connected to said support means about a horizontal axis, said wing member including a pair of' elongated parallel guideways, power means for effecting angular adjustment of said wing member between a substantially vertical travel position and a work position extending laterally from said apparatus above said shoulder, a slide mounted on each of said guideways, power means for effecting adjustable movement of said slides along said wing member, a blade carried by said slides for operation on a portion of said shoulder in accordance with the adjusted position of said slides during operation in said work position, and bar means for rigidly interconnecting said gudeways to resist twisting of said wing member under action of said blade, there being provided a crosspiece for interconnecting said slides so that the same move in unison along said guideways, hinge means for mounting said blade on said crosspiece, said blade being free to pivot toward said wing member into a folded position in said travel position.

7. The combination of claim 6 wherein said slides are positioned at different locations along their respective guideways whereby said crosspiece and said blade extend at an angle with respect to said shoulder in the work position.

`8. A railway shoulder Shaper for use with a continuous railway work apparatus for operation on the shoulder of the roadbed comprising support means carried by said apparatus, a wing member connected to said support means, a blade carried by said wing member for operation on said shoulder, said wing member being pivotally connected to said support means, said support means being slidable with respect to said apparatus along a vertical axis, said blade being slidable along said wing member, first power means for effecting angular adjustment of said wing member between a substantially vertical travel position and a work position extending laterally from said apparatus above said shoulder, second power means for effecting vertical shifting movement of said support means to move said wing member between an upper travel position and a lower travel position, third power means for effecting adjustable movement of said blade along said wing member for operation on a portion of said shoulder in accordance with the adjusted position during operation in said work position, and a relatively heavy chain connected to the outer end of said wing member, so as to form a final dressing loop on the shoulder to the rear of said blade to assist said blade in shaping said shoulder during said operation.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,348,796 5/ 1944 Ferwerda et al. 37-105 2,830,391 4/1958 Bruno et al. 37-105 2,853,811 9/1958 Shipley et al. 37-105 2,777,220 1/1957 Bates 37-105 3,257,744 6/1966 Buhler 37-105 ROBERT E. PULFREY, Primary Examiner. E. H. EICKHOLT, Assistant Examiner.

U.s. ci. xn. 94-46; 172-189, 459, 46s 

